Urgent help
- Trespassing or immediate danger: 112
- Police, non-urgent: 0900-8844
Looking out for each other
There is a neighbourhood WhatsApp community, which also has an alert app for each building. Want to join? Post a request in the Livvin app.
Our neighbourhood: history and progress
The station area has a long and complicated history. In the 1990s, hundreds of homeless people and drug users lived in the supply tunnel under Hoog Catharijne, the so-called “junkentunnel”, in very poor and unsafe conditions.
When the tunnel closed in 1999, Utrecht chose care over simply moving people on. One of the places that came from this is De Stek at Van Sijpesteijnkade 42: a 24-hour shelter with a supervised consumption room, where people can use safely instead of on the street and stay within reach of care.
Since then, the area has been transformed, and SYP and Steyn were built right next door. We share our street with some of the most vulnerable people in the city, and residents do regularly experience nuisance and feel unsafe.
In October 2024, residents started the Safety Committee. The committee has repeatedly contacted the parties involved and has now managed to escalate the issue to the mayor. The safety of the area and the location of De Stek are now getting more and more serious attention.
Thanks to the committee, there have been more and more conversations with everyone involved. It is a slow process that takes patience, but things are moving in the right direction, with respect for both the residents and the people De Stek is there for.
Sources